BJP decides not to relinquish Hindutva but will reach out to minorities

New Delhi, June 21 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday announced that the party will not give up its Hindu ideology but will try to reach out to minorities and it believes that there should not be any place for fundamentalism towards any religion.

“There is no question of going back on our ideology. Hindutva is a way of life. He (Lal Krishna Advani) has quoted a lot of people in this (message). We will try to reach out to minorities but there is no question of going back on our main ideology,” said Venkaiah Naidu, former President of Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday after the two-day national executive meet.

Naidu added that party needed to articulate its ideology in a better way.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday adopted a political resolution owning collective responsibility for its defeat in the recently-concluded parliamentary elections and insisted that its Hindutva ideology was inclusive.

“Hinduism or Hindutva is not to be understood or construed narrowly confined only to religious practices or expressed in extreme forms,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told media here on the second day of the party’s conclave.

Earlier in the day, Lal Krishna Advani during his speech during the meet highlighted issues which should be of concern to the BJP at present and in near future.

“It is a matter of concern that our Party seems to be plateauing in some states, which are our strongholds, and have actually suffered big reversals in some others. The State of the party organization at all levels, including at the Centre, needs to be improved. We have to strengthen unity in thought, unity in planning and unity in execution in leadership tiers at the Centre and in states. We must identify, train, groom and empower third, fourth and fifth generation of leaders in the BJP. Our leadership planning should take into account the Party’s needs for the next twenty years,” said Advani, while mentioning about the corrective actions, during his speech at the meet.

“True, Elections 2009 did not produce results that we expected. We should not be found wanting in honest introspection. But introspection is different from finger-pointing. It is not only we who are disappointed, our legion of supporters are equally disappointed that we could not defeat the Congress. The people have high hopes and heightened expectations from the BJP. Let us strive to rise to their expectations,” Advani said in his concluding remarks. (ANI)